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Students will understand how background and subtext can help create a scene with honest emotion and depth by exploring secrets. Students create a secret to explore their character and apply it to a scene.

Students will understand how to uncover the directorial clues that Shakespeare left in his work by doing a textual analysis. They will explore Emotional Outbursts, Action words, and Emotion words through a structured color coding analysis of a Shakespeare monologue.

Students apply the questions used in a Character Analysis Worksheet to create a character background for themselves. Students use this to help them understand the importance of details and commitment to character choices by creating a believable Show and Tell presentation with an unknown object.

Students will understand the importance of actively listening and using active listening to inform their character choices in performance. They will participate in listening exercises and apply active listening to their scene work.

This is a three lesson plan unit on introducing Improvisation. Part One: Introduction to Improv Students will understand what improvisation is and how to use the following rules: Trust Yourself and Accept all Offers. Part Two: Characterization & One Focus Students explore Characterization and One Focus by participating in activities and playing Ding, Emotional Waiter and Party Quirks. Part Three: Conflict and Tell a Complete Story Students will understand what conflict is and how to create it. Students will also understand how to use conflict to tell an improvised story with a beginning, middle and end. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the rules of improvisation through their final performance in Freeze as well as a written quiz.

Use this lesson plan with students who have some background in tableau. Students will apply the tableau form to a nonlinear framework to communicate an emotion, to visualize a word, and to illuminate an issue.

Use this lesson plan as an introduction to onstage physical action. Students will demonstrate comprehension of nonverbal communication by identifying, discussing and demonstrating different aspects of body language. They will brainstorm examples of nonverbal communication. They will practice these gestures in exercises. They will come up with body language for different characters and relationships between characters. Their final task will be to put what they've learned into a short scene and then write a reflection.

Use this lesson plan to get your students to practice the act of writing theatrical action. It's much different than writing a story. Students learn that in plays characters "do" an action, they don't "describe" an action. Students practice taking prose descriptive sentences and re-writing them as theatrical action. Students are also introduced to proper play formatting.

Some plays have rudimentary stage directions or no stage directions at all, leaving the world of the play up to the director and designers. Some plays, however, have stage directions that to the ordinary person might seem impossible to stage. Shakespeare has “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Peter Shaffer has “They cross the Andes.” These types of challenges, however, are perfect for the classroom. Students work in groups with an impossible stage direction and come up with possible solutions. How would they stage it with a limited budget and no mechanical options? How would they stage it using the newest quality set design, lights, and sound?

This lesson plan takes students through a variety of directing styles, asks them to assess each method, and then asks them to reflect on what’s most important when choosing a directing method. This is a great lesson to use for a directing class, or an advanced class that will be putting together their own scenes.

In this ELP students will take on the role of director. As the point person in a production for both the onstage and offstage departments, the director is the one who must problem-solve in a variety of situations. Students are asked to brainstorm solutions for a variety of problems and write out their answers. They will submit their work at the end of the class.

In this ELP, students problem solve common tech theatre issues.

Students will work on a problem-solving scenario that may arise while working with peers/friends during the rehearsal process. They will first work together as a group, and then individually submit an Exit Slip.

In Week Three, students continue to write read their work aloud and receive feedback. The feedback for this week will focus on character and conflict. They will also complete post-first draft questions and character profiles. The second draft is due at the end of the week.

Week Four is about practice, performance, and unit reflection. It’s important to include performance in the unit because the ultimate goal of all plays is that they be performed (rather than read). Students have the opportunity to rehearse in groups, present to the class, and then reflect on their experience with the unit.

The objective of this lesson is for students to explore different ways of analyzing text, to make their character’s lines rich and full of emotion and meaning. This lesson provides three exploratory exercises (which can be used individually as desired) as well as a culminating assignment.

In this ELP, students read an article about a specific role in the professional theatre, answer questions, and participate in a problem-solving activity.

In this ELP, students read an article about a specific role in the professional theatre, answer questions, and participate in a problem-solving activity.

In this ELP, students read an article about a specific role in the professional theatre, and answer questions.

In this real world application lesson students view videos of an theatre profession, complete viewing quizzes, and hand in a Reflection.